Vampire Weekend have dropped two new tracks from their upcoming album – ‘Capricorn’ and ‘Gen-X Cops’. Check them out below.
Arriving today (February 16), the two new singles come following Ezra Koenig and co. announcing details of their first album in five years, ‘Only God Was Above Us’, which follows on from 2019’s ‘Father Of The Bride’.
The fifth LP from the New York band is set to contain 10 tracks and will arrive on April 5 via Columbia. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
Now, Vampire Weekend have given fans their first taste of what to expect from the new material, dropping two singles simultaneously: the swaying, subdued ‘Capricorn’ and its punk-influenced counterpart, ‘Gen-X Cops’.
With ‘Capricorn’, the track begins on a deceptively subdued note and captures a mellow yet uplifting message, with honeyed melodies throughout. It also comes with a new music video, directed by the band’s longtime creative director Nick Harwood and capturing the essence of life in New York City during the late ‘80s.
“Capricorn/ The year that you were born/ Finished fast and the next one wasn’t yours/ Too old for dyin’ young/ Too young to live alone/ Sifting through centuries for moments of your own,” Koenig sings in the reflective chorus. Check it out below.
As for the second single, ‘Gen-X Cops’ sees the band take a different approach – capturing a more energised, punk-influenced track that shows the other side of the album.
“Dodged the draft but can’t dodge the war/ Forever cursed to live insecure/
The curtain drops, a gang of Gen X cops assembles/ Trembling before our human nature,” the frontman sings in the second verse.
Like its counterpart, ‘Gen-X Cops’ also comes alongside a retro-looking music video, inspired by New York. Directed by Drew Pearce (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Iron Man 3), the visuals a decidedly different route to the city’s authenticity, focusing on the night lights and utilising the exact film-stocks Siegel used in 1988.
Last week, the band confirmed that the album had been recorded all over the world, from Manhattan to Los Angeles to London and Tokyo.
It was said to have been “inspired and haunted by 20th Century New York City”, primarily produced by frontman Ezra Koenig and longtime collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid (Haim, Brandon Flowers), and written majorly between 2019 and 2020.
The artwork is comprised of photographs taken from a subway graveyard in New Jersey back in 1988.
Shot by Steven Siegel, the album’s cover sees a man reading a 1988 edition of the New York Daily News. The paper’s cover story details an aeroplane accident in Hawaii, with the headline quoting one of the survivors: “ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US.”
In other news, Vampire Weekend will play a special album launch show at the Moody Amphitheater in Austin, Texas on April 8 during the historic total eclipse.
They have also been announced as headliners for this year’s edition of Hinterland Festival, and will perform at the New Orleans Jazz Festival alongside Foo Fighters, The Rolling Stones and Neil Young. Other appearances are scheduled for Primavera Sound and Kilby Block Party.